Banopolis is known as the first local startup to offer bike-sharing service in the country, where the concept remains foreign

Indonesian bike-sharing startup Banopolis on Wednesday announced a partnership with state-owned mobile operator Telkomsel, smartphone maker Huawei, and University of Indonesia (UI) to test bike-sharing service at UI campus in Depok, West Java.

The campus itself has already offered manual bike-sharing service for students since 2010, and is looking forward to rejuvenate the service by implementing bike-sharing technology as offered by Banopolis.

According to a DailySocial report, the partnership is part of a corporate social responsibility programme (CSR) by Telkomsel, and the company aims to understand the market’s response first before turning it into a commercial project.

“We still need the learning process to get the feedback on what we need to improve before expanding this service,” said Telkomsel Managing Director Ririek Adriansyah.

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In this project, the partnership aims to test the use of narrow band – internet-of-things (NB-IoT) technology, a type of a lower power wide area (LPWA) technology that allows devices to operate for years without having to recharge.

In a statement on their Facebook Page on August 2017, Banopolis explained that they have been testing the technology in their devices.

Compared to other Asian markets such as Singapore or China, Indonesia is relatively slow in adopting the bike-sharing service.

In a report by The Guardian, Bike2Work Indonesia Chairman and Co-Founder Toto Sugrito even dubbed cycling in Jakarta as a “very dangerous” activity, thanks to its high level of air pollution and traffic congestion.

Based in Bandung, Banopolis is known as the first local companies to test and develop bike-sharing technology in the country.

In January, Singapore-based oBike became the first foreign bike-sharing startup to launch its service in Indonesia, starting with Bandung and several towns in Bali.

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